


Down With Peace and Love

by Silver_Sorceress



Category: Peace and Love Incorporated - Information Society
Genre: Anti-Capitalism, Cyberpunk, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-16
Updated: 2017-12-16
Packaged: 2019-02-15 13:38:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13032282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silver_Sorceress/pseuds/Silver_Sorceress





	Down With Peace and Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AlexSeanchai (EllieMurasaki)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllieMurasaki/gifts).



They kept their current hideout deep in the woods, off the grid, away from any cities or prying eyes. Experience had taught them that interaction with society would inevitably lead to interference with their plans.

 

The hideout was fairly simple, with a main room and then a smaller room for their bunks. They stored their supplies on a series of gray industrial shelves, mounted at waist-level so they could quickly and easily grab materials if they ever needed to flee.

 

Surveying the equipment, Red nervously pushed back a strand of her long blonde hair. Tonight wouldn’t be her first raid against Peace & Love, Inc., but it would be the riskiest one she’d participated in so far. Fretting, Red looked over her assembled gadgets again. Her hoverboard was waiting outside, and she was already wearing the sneak suit that would automatically camouflage her form with whatever background she was near. She had the tube of smart matter to use to destroy Peace & Love, Inc. flagship manufacturing plant. And yet, consumed by anxiety as she was, she couldn’t help but feel that she was forgetting something . . .

 

“How long till you’re ready?” a voice asked briskly, snapping Red out of her worries.

 

She turned to find Zain standing in entranceway of the only door, one hand on her hip, her face determined and business-like as it always was.

 

Red herself had no personal ties to Peace & Love, Inc., not any more than the next person. As a corporation it dominated the country, seizing control in every industry it entered: agriculture, automotive, entertainment, weaponry, technology, fashion, and the list went on. Recently, it had even expanded to education, taking control of all public schools and shutting down most private academies in order to ensure all students were learning the same curriculum. 

 

That was when Red decided to stand up against Peace & Love, Inc. She had been a college student, an avid academic, until her private university had been disbanded. She had loved it there, knowing every inch and corner of the small campus like the back of her hand and treasuring the relationships she had with the tight-knit student body. She’d even been leader of her campus interfaith group, the first polytheist to ever take the position.

 

Zain was different. She’d grown up impoverished thanks to Peace & Love, Inc. forcing so much of its competition out of the market and charging sky-high prices for housing and food. Zain had once told Red that she’d needed to work two jobs throughout her school in order to make sure her family had enough to eat. And then she’d achieved a scholarship and attended college before attaining one of the coveted positions at Peace & Love, Inc. as a spokeswoman. Essentially, she was a local girl made good.

 

But when she’d truly seen just how much trouble Peace & Love, Inc. caused all over the country, with its reach ever encroaching on other parts of the world, she turned against them. 

 

“I don’t know what I thought growing up,” she’d once admitted to Red. “I guess I just thought what was happening in my neighborhood was normal. Everyone around me worked day in, day out to make sure their families were fed. It seemed routine, so it wasn’t until I had the job that I realized just how screwed up it was. I thought it was just my region that Peace & Love was negatively affecting, but there were so many others. Worse, there were so many more on the map. Families tossed from their homes, land people have farmed for generations suddenly stolen from them. All in the name of profit. It’s despicable.”

 

“And that’s when you became a corporate spy?” Red had asked, her eyes wide.

 

“I knew what had to be done,” Zain confirmed. “I realized it then, and it’s what’s been driving me ever since. Peace & Love, Inc. needs to be destroyed if we ever want to live in a just and fair world. Otherwise, we’ll all be stuck under its tyranny until the day we die and they extort our relatives for our graves and coffins.”

 

Red couldn’t help but feel ashamed as she listened to Zain’s passion and determination. She done all right under Peace & Love Inc.’s reign. She had enjoyed a life of privilege and had never had reason nor felt the urge to rise up against the system. She had been just another customer being overcharged for food and rent who didn’t like it but didn’t fight it because she had enough money for it not to matter. Just another one of the sheep Peace & Love, Inc. counted on so they could continue their fat cat capitalist monopoly that didn’t answer to anyone. 

 

But Zain, even though she’d been offered a swanky career, decided to make it her mission to bring down Peace & Love, Inc., to end the corporation’s dictatorship. Once a Peace & Love, Inc. spokeswoman, she worked as an undercover operative within the company until she was found out and declared a fugitive. And from then on, she acted as the spokeswoman against Peace & Love, Inc., filming videos and giving speeches against the company, shining a light on its dark underbelly. Now, she was leader of the resistance, with followers in cities all around the world. And tonight, they were going to complete the biggest mission the resistance had undertaken thus far.

 

Red was nervous. None of her strikes against Peace & Love, Inc. has been so blatant, so bold. And she’d never even vandalized anything before, but now she was about to obliterate an entire manufacturing plant. 

 

But Peace & Love, Inc. controlled too much of the government to ever face justice for breaking the law. So now it was time for its trial in the people’s court.

 

Red squared her shoulders. “I’m ready now,” she answered, pushing her doubts to the back of her mind.

 

She walked outside with Zain, and together, they hopped on their hoverboards and zoomed off into the night. It was time to destroy Peace & Love, Inc.


End file.
